Cameras picked up on the incident – which saw Ryan playfully air jab around Roxanne and accidentally clip her with his ring.

Despite his apology, Roxanne accused ‘woman beater’ Ryan of assaulting her and refused to sleep in the same room as him.

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Emma continued: ‘100 per cent [it could have been career-ending]. That was what was so hard watching it. You could see him crumbling and his tears in the Diary Room and he was just baffled as to what was going on.

‘I think it was hard for the production team as well because they’d tried to make it such a genuine series with not giving housemates too much information and stripping it back to how it used to be.

‘And that was where you thought: Do you tip the balance? Do you change anything? Or do you just let things happen naturally which is what they were trying to do?’

Trying to see it from Roxanne’s point of view, Emma went on: ‘One thing I spoke to her about [afterwards] was that she obviously felt something, but watching it as a viewer we were all baffled as to why she had been hurt.

‘He has got a big ring on and she did say afterwards, maybe that was what felt so bad but I think maybe she has experienced things in the past.

Emma admits that it was hard to watch Ryan cope with the allegations (Picture: REX)

‘You just don’t know how somebody is going to react to something and that’s the thing you have to manage as well.’

Roxanne walked out of the series by the back door while Ryan – who ultimately won the series – was left in turmoil inside the Big Brother house.

When the soap actress was later interviewed by Emma, it was agreed that the CBB host approached Roxanne with just the right level of calm and collected interrogation.

Afterwards, Emma told Mail On Sunday’s You Magazine: ‘I’ve never tried to impose my view on the audience, but when something like this happens, something that felt so wrong, I couldn’t hide my own opinions.’

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